Why? Why is gold useful in a survival strategy? I don't get it. In a post-apocalyptic economy, am I shaving the six gold coins in my portfolio ($10,000 worth) into gold dust, which I then pay in pinches at the local grocer in exchange for bread?

It doesn't work like that. It's just another form of currency that has value because we arbitrarily assign it value. Gold is just as worthless in doomsday as currency is. The only things that matter at that point are weapons, food, water, fuel, and shelter. If you're going to invest in doomsday, don't half-ass it by putting money on a shiny metal. Invest in a couple shotguns, an isolated cabin, and some wind turbines.

Confidence in gold is shot after investors were duped for the past two years to believe that it is a stable investment tied to the rate of inflation. The price spike to $1900/oz and subsequent drop to $1200/oz in one year are proof that it is priced simply on what the next fool is willing to pay for it.

Did we miss a major central bank tightening overnight? The precious metals sector is lit up bright red following the Fed's addition to QE and what looks like the promise of ZIRP for at least 2-3 more years. GLD-1.1%, SLV-2.2% premarket. Copper and oil join in, the red metal -1.4%, and WTI crude -0.6%. [View news story]

"Inflation drives the price of gold."

There's your flaw. Speculation is driving the price of gold, not inflation.

Apple (AAPL-3.6%) has sold off in early trading, apparently on news clearing firms are raising their margin requirements for positions due to fears of being too heavily concentrated in the $526B company. One firm, COR Clearing, raised its margin requirement to 60% from 30%. [View news story]

Please talk to Cisco and GE about the benefits of diversification.

This company is trading at 12.5 TTM P/E. Their entire lineup is less than six months old, they're all available for the holiday shopping season, and they're selling so fast that they can't keep them in stock. After January earnings, the P/E is going to be insanely low if the price doesn't move.

Point being, they don't need to create any new product lines to justify a radical price increase. The PPS could hit $800 today, and it'll still have a lower valuation than Google, a company that is growing slower.

Apple (AAPL-3.6%) has sold off in early trading, apparently on news clearing firms are raising their margin requirements for positions due to fears of being too heavily concentrated in the $526B company. One firm, COR Clearing, raised its margin requirement to 60% from 30%. [View news story]

"No one buys into a company because of the dividend. A dividend doesn't make you a good company or even a decent company."

You clearly haven't been keeping up with returns for various asset classes over the past few years. Dividend payers have been outperforming all other assets by a wide margin. The hunt for yield is having a huge effect.

An 8GB Wi-Fi-only version of the iPad Mini (AAPL) will cost just $249, according to an inventory screenshot leak - that would make the device, expected to sport a 7.85" display, $50 more expensive than the 7" 8GB Nexus 7 and 16GB Kindle Fire HD. But a 16Gb Wi-Fi version will go for $349, as will an 8GB 3G/4G version. The most costly model listed (a 64GB 3G/4G unit) will reportedly sell for $649. Apple is expected to unveil the Mini at an Oct. 23 event. (retina MacBook Pro) [View news story]

Are you nuts? Apple profitably sells apps, music, movies, tv shows, and ebooks through iTunes. They have a stronger ecosystem than Amazon.

PC shipments fell a stunning 8.3% Y/Y in Q3, estimates Gartner - that figure makes Q2's 0.1% drop look great by comparison, and is raising eyebrows even with all of the negative industry data that has emerged. Weak back-to-school sales and cautious retailer orders are blamed, though the tablet market's growth is hard to overlook. U.S. shipments -13.8% Y/Y (both consumer and corporate sales were weak), EMEA -8.7%, and Asia-Pac -5.6% (China's slowing growth had an effect). [View news story]

Memory leaks on iOS are minimal compared to Android.

Verizon has the best coverage in the US by far.

The user interface of the iPhone is still the gold standard that has been replicated by Google and all Android vendors.

Prior to the iPhone, smartphones shipped with full keyboards, D-pads, and navigation buttons. Now they're all as minimal as the iPhone. They don't need to add buttons.

The user interfaces of iOS and OS X are different because they use different input mechanisms. What works best for a capacitive touchscreen may not be ideal for a touchpad or mouse.

The patent litigation represents a company that holds the intellectual property rights to multi-touch gestures and stated back in 2007, "...and boy have we patented it," thanks to companies that so desperately copied the iPod's clickwheel and fell over themselves to copy the iPhone's multitouch, as predicted.

Their crap is built by the same company (Foxconn) that builds products for HP, Google, Motorola, Microsoft, and dozens of other vendors. The chief complaint of Foxconnn workers is not enough opportunities for overtime.

Any other BS you'd like to shoot off? Because none of these are good reasons for why AAPL isn't a good investment, nor why Apple's products are in any way inferior to the competition.

Completely faulty logic. The problem with Amazon isn't just that growth is slowing. It's that it simply makes too little in earnings compared to its outrageous valuation. On a P/E basis, it's astronomical - past 300.

On the contrary, look at the PEG for AAPL - it's still 0.6 with a P/E of 16. That's a good, undervalued number for a company still growing earnings in double digits. There is no reason for AMZN to be valued at 300 P/E, compared to AAPL valued at 16 P/E, considering the growth rates for both companies.

As an investor, we buy companies to take a share of the earnings. Whenever anyone has been quoted as saying something like "earnings don't matter" or "valuation doesn't matter", it's a sign of extreme froth. Thus, bubble alert.